Blog Challenge #41: Why Do You Play Your Faction?

We’re coming around to the question that really defines Battle for Azeroth lately, and that’s “Why DO you play your faction?”

I’ve been playing Warcraft games since Warcraft 2, and if you’d told thebmatt of those days that one day there would be a Warcraft MMORPG and he’d be playing on the Horde side, he would respond with…..well first he’d probably say “What the heck is an MMORPG?” but then shortly afterwards he’d say something like “What? Why would I play on that side? You’re crazy!”

But then Warcraft 3 happened. Oh man did Warcraft 3 happened. Thrall leads the Orcs to a new future where they re-discover the old ways of their people, the way of the shaman, and not only fight alongside the Alliance to wreck some demons, but casts their shadow off of their people for good. Bmatt loves him a redemption story, and this was the Horde’s redemption story in spades.

So when World of Warcraft rolled around, and I finally got both a computer that could play it AND I could afford the subscription (around August of 2005), I could honestly see myself ready to jump into either side. But I had friends who all lived in the same apartment complex that I did who were playing, and they were Horde (shoutout to Rabid the Tauren warrior, Kish the Troll hunter, and Evrae the Undead warlock if you guys are out there somewhere, I miss you all). Of course I wanted to play alongside my friends, so that settled it. I joined the Horde as a troll mage (who I still run around with to this day).

I’m sure you’re all NOT AT ALL familiar with him by this point

Now, to be fair, I have played Alliance characters with varying amounts of activity starting probably around Warlords of Draenor. BFA will likely be the highest amount of time I spend with my Alliance characters thanks to having faction-exclusive story content. But I’ll never be able to main Alliance. I’ve been through a few guilds and met a number of amazing people in my time in this game, but in my current guild (which I’ve been a part of since late Burning Crusade), I have made some truly incredible friends that have changed my life in many different ways, all for the better. I could never leave them, not for another guild in the Horde and certainly not for the other faction. If they all wanted to join the Alliance? I’d go in a heartbeat. They’re what’s important to me about the game.

FER THE ALLIANCE….mebbe someday, lad…

There was a time in which I would have been “HELL NO HORDE FOR LIFE” for certain if that came up. But as I’ve stated elsewhere in this blog many times, Blizzard has seemingly forgotten what made us have pride in the Horde to begin with. The Thrall trailer from Heroes of the Storm captures it perfectly